Choose Work Blog

Social Security's 2012 Ticket to Work. What's on the Horizon for Ticket to Work Participants February 22, 2012

If you have a disability and are ready to work or return to work, 2012 offers an optimistic outlook for employment opportunities. With a surge in disability employment support from both the White House and President Obama, you can expect positive changes on the employment front.

Below are some of the federal hiring initiatives that could positively affect Ticket to Work participants like you in 2012.

1 - The Office of Personnel Management's Schedule A hiring initiative is a federal employment program for people with disabilities. It allows eligible individuals to apply non-competitively for positions within the federal government and avoid lengthy hiring processes.

2 - The Department of Defense and the Department of Labor’s Workforce Recruitment Program is a recruitment and referral program that connects federal employers with college students and recent graduates with disabilities who want to improve their abilities in the workplace through summer or permanent jobs.

3 - The White House announced support for putting Wounded Warriors and returning veterans back to work. The Department of Veteran Affairs and the Department of Labor have programs providing vocational rehabilitation services and job training for veterans with disabilities.

Ticket to Work can provide you with training, career counseling, and job support. Find a service provider in your area.

Learn more about Ticket to Work and how it can lead to a good job, a good career, and a better self-supporting future.

Visit www.socialsecurity.gov/work, email us at support@chooseworkttw.net or call our Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842 or 1-866-833-2967 (TTY/TDD).

Or just visit our website at BTWServices.com for lots of info and fill out our information form and find out if you are eligible for the program.....

Top 7 CRAPPY Jobs "NOT" to look for in 2012 and beyond

1 - Economist:

The Federal government is the largest employer of economists in the country. More than half -- 53 percent -- of all economists in the U.S. work for declining government sectors, so Uncle Sam's not hiring a lot of economists just now. "Econ" is a hot college major, but most of those newly-minted grads won't find work as traditional economists. Instead, they'll end up in niche sectors in business, finance, insurance, and education. Those set on working as conventional economists better have a Plan B, or a Plan Ph.D, because they'll need one. The economists at BLS do tell us that by 2018, an additional 900 economists will be employed -- so the outlook is not as dismal for dismal scientists as it is for, say, travel agents. But if current trends continue, the future isn't promising. "You look at the last 10 to15 years and it has been flat," says Henry Kasper of the BLS. "There's little reason to think it's going to get better."

2 - Fashion designer:

Call it Project Turnaway. By 2018, only 200 more designers will find work in a field that employed 22,700 people as of 2008. That's about 2 percent of the number who applied to become Project Runway contestants in 2009, estimates Carol-Hannah Whitfield, who was a finalist on the show that year. "The world doesn't need another designer," Whitfield says.

3 - Insurance underwriter:

Blame it on the software. New programs allow underwriters to take on three times as much work as in the past, collapsing the need for more hires. As a result, the BLS projects that the number of people employed in the field will decline by 4 percent, or 4,300 jobs, by 2018. "[The underwriter] just punches in data, and it spits out, say, whether a potential homebuyer is approved or not," says Henry Kasper, supervisory economist at the BLS. Growth in the insurance industry isn't exactly exploding either, further undermining the career outlook for underwriters.

4 - Travel agent:

Call it the Attack of the Roaming Gnome: Online sites such as Travelocity, Priceline.com, Expedia, and Orbitz have decimated the ranks of travel agents as consumers increasingly book their own trips. The BLS expects 1,200 fewer travel agents to be employed in 2018 than in 2008. And the number of traditional travel agencies has been sliced in half -- from a peak of 44,000 in 1997 to about 20,000 today, according to Douglas Quinby of PhoCusWright, a travel industry research company based in Sherman, Connecticut.

5 - Newspaper reporter:

Read it and weep: According to the BLS, a whopping 4,400 jobs will disappear by 2018 (out of 69,400 total in 2008). That's more than three times the number of newsroom employees at The New York Times. The bad news for print can be summed up in one word: Internet. "Some of the print people are finding jobs online," says Lauren Csorny, an economist at the BLS. But there aren't enough to make up for the losses. No wonder that newspaper reporters ranked No. 184 out of 200 jobs, one slot above stevedore, in CareerCast.com's annual JobsRated survey.

6 - Broadcast announcer:(Disc Jockey)

The play-by-play for this occupation isn't pretty. Consolidation has eliminated many jobs already, and technology is hijacking off-air tasks, such as editing, once performed by announcers (and future announcers paying their dues). Add the increased use of syndication and the growth of satellite radio and the picture is even bleaker. By 2018, broadcasting is expected to lose 2,400 radio and TV announcer jobs.

7 - Chemist:

Nearly half of all chemists are employed in manufacturing firms -- plastics, pesticides, and paint, to name a few. And that's a bummer for them, because manufacturing companies are continuing to outsource their R&D and testing to small, specialized firms, cutting job opportunities for in-house chemists. The profession lost 42,000 jobs from 2008 to 2009, according to Chemical and Engineering News, and the BLS projects only a 2 percent rise in the total number of chemists employed by 2018.

Is Your Job in Jeopardy???

Let us know in the comments......

My American Dream: Creating a Pathway for a New Beginning

By Guest Blogger Bob Williams,
Associate Commissionerfor the
Social Security’s Office of  Employment Support Program

“If we want more disability beneficiaries to go to work, we must offer individuals pathways and opportunities to earn their way out of poverty and to have a fair shot at entering or re-entering the middle class.”

I am both excited and honored to be the new Associate Commissioner of the Office of
Employment Support Programs (OESP), which administers the agency’s Ticket to Work
program. I’m excited because Ticket to Work is an innovative program that for nearly a decade
has helped thousands of Social Security beneficiaries with disabilities find meaningful
employment and take steps toward achieving greater self-sufficiency. I’m honored because of the awesome responsibility I am taking on. Ticket to Work is not just a “jobs program.” Its mission is to create a better quality of life for people with disabilities by providing them with a pathway to financial independence.

I am driven to make Ticket to Work a success. I believe that every individual with a disability has so much to offer in life when given the right tools and opportunities to excel. My personal and professional journeys taught me this. When I was born with cerebral palsy, my parents were told to institutionalize me and never look back – common advice during my generation. Instead, they raised me in the same rough and tumble world as my brothers and sisters, mixed with love and a strong belief in working hard and getting ahead. I grew up during a time when the chance of a child with a significant disability getting any formal education at all was slim to none. I was extremely fortunate that my parents, family and teachers had high expectations of me. As I think back, some of my earliest memories of growing up are those of my parents telling me that I would go to college someday. I will never know what prompted them to hold out such hopes, but their belief drove me to pursue an education.

My educational journey began with the Connecticut Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Agency. They took a chance on a gangly 21-year old and sent me to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where I earned my undergraduate degree in urban affairs. My education was key to my later successes and achievements, and I believe education is a primary driver in the pursuit of the American Dream. Now, when I address young people with disabilities, I urge them to gain a degree and position themselves for vocational success. I also urge parents to support their children’s dreams and encourage them to make a difference.

I credit my degree for many things, but mostly it allowed me to work on behalf of the disability community and help pass the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. Prior to taking on my new role at Social Security, I held senior positions in the federal government serving as Commissioner on Developmental Disabilities, and then as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Disability, Aging and Long Term Care Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I look forward to working with all stakeholders to build and carry out a plan that will offer choices and opportunities, build collaboration and yield results for Ticket holders.

The recent recession continues to hit people with disabilities and their families hard in terms of unemployment, vast underemployment and growing poverty. As such, it’s vital that we take action as a community and get the support of young people to help support the charge and bring about reform. Someone once said we don’t choose the times we live in, nor can we choose whether they are tranquil or turbulent, but each of us can choose to make the best of our times by expanding and enlarging the broad reach of justice.

Looking Toward the Future

I believe the outlook for those with disabilities is extremely promising. As the nation’s economy shows signs of improvement, all of us in the disability community should be ready to take advantage of opportunities. President Obama is committed to making the federal government a model employer by hiring 100,000 workers with disabilities within five years. The Department of Labor is strengthening the requirements for federal contractors to hire people with disabilities. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa is challenging the business community, and the nation, to look past the Great Recession to the coming recovery and to set a goal to increase the number of adults with disabilities participating in the labor force from 4.9 million today to 6 million by 2015.

To achieve the goal of increasing the number of working Americans with disabilities by about one million people in four years will require OESP to build trust, collaborate and educate Ticket holders about the Ticket to Work program. Every person with a disability deserves the chance to live their American Dream. If we all work together, the blueprint we build today will lay the foundation for tomorrow and create a brighter future for those with disabilities.

To learn more about the Ticket to Work program, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/work.

At Back to Work Services, a leading Employment Network. We are Proud to be a part of Mr. Williams dream and look forward to working towards an America where all Americans with disabilities will have the option to "WORK" without prejudice or being looked down upon as too fragile to be in the workforce. Contact us for more info.

Let's hear what You want to say to the New Commissioner. I will try to e-mail your remarks directly to Mr. Williams and put his replies on this blog. Do it in the comments section.

Together We can make America "WORK".

Rant, Rant and more Ranting...

Saw this RANT a website a few days ago, let me know what you think about it.

I’m looking to hire three people to help me with my computer repair business. So, I ran a few ads in Craigslist and instantly got swarmed with people interested in the positions available.

Unemployment rates really must be high. And you know what? I think that sucks. Things shouldn’t be this way. But you know what? In many ways it’s like starting over.

People came to this country to find opportunities. These opportunities weren’t to work at Walmart. People came here because they had ideas that they wanted to execute and make happen. These were people who were willing to risk their lives sailing across the ocean just to have a chance to position themselves in a way to see if they can make their dreams come true.

Here we are today, with the same situation. The only differences is that you don’t have to risk your life traveling across the ocean and that you have a lot of technology to aid you in your success. There’s no excuse for unemployment. If you are an able bodied and able minded individual, female or male, black, Hispanic, or white, you can earn for yourself and for your loved ones.

The problem you have is that you don’t have a dream or an idea to execute. Instead you’d rather complain about having your hours cut at Walmart or complain that your job is to push the shopping carts back inside the store. I normally don’t use profanity in my posts, but if this describes you and you’re not happy with your life then that’s a bunch of bullshit.

What are you good at doing? What kind of skills do you have? If you’re good at something than do something because doing nothing while being capable of doing something and complaining about your life is weak. Do you know how to use a lawn mower? Build a lawn care business. Do you know how to use a paintbrush? Startup a painting business. Do you know how to build websites? Well, do that!

The point is this: I understand that the economy is bad. I understand that the unemployment rate is high. I understand that places like Walmart are cutting your hours. That’s because they overtook our country and made into a big pile of shit. Importing was our downfall. But here’s the thing. Stop depending on the government. Stop depending on the economy that Walmart fucked up.

What we have here in front of us is the same land that people lost their lives trying to sail over here in a sailboat. Back then, there was no government. There was no economy. There was a bunch of aggressive, and highly motivated individuals that wanted to come here to execute their ideas. They are the ones that created economy.

They are the ones that eventually created government. And today, in my opinion, all that energy and power has died and ran it’s cycle. And that’s okay! Because right now, you can do exactly what was done 200 years ago. The only difference is that you don’t have to starve to death on a boat or get killed by a native American. You don’t have to get sick and die from the flu. You can get your breasts or testicles chopped off to save your ass from cancer. All you have to do is execute an idea from the comfort of your home office that’s powered by a computer that exceeds that processing power of the computers used to power the Apollo missions coupled with your high speed Internet access.

Unemployment is a joke. And there is no excuse for it. And it is your fault. You’re the one bitching and depending on some higher element to make things better for you. Go babysit a kid. Go wash a car. Create and provide a service. That’s no different than what was done 200 years ago. Only difference is that you got a free pass to live on the land while your ancestors had to die trying to get here. If you can’t find a job, then create one.

What about health care? Screw it, they didn’t have health care 200 years ago. Either your going to get sick and die broke, or your idea will make you enough money to pay your way through your sicknesses. Do something. Do anything. But don’t sit back and complain about things that people didn’t have here 200 years ago. They made it work and so can you.

All this was was written and published using an iPhone. A mobile telephone. If we live in an era where we can write and and create an entire web page using a telephone, then we can build on our dreams and create our own generation’s and era’s economy. Seriously, stop bitching and start surviving. And let your survival instincts recreate America.

What do YOU think????

Let us know in the comments.

I don't know if this is Good or Bad for California

GOVERNOR BROWN ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT

SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointment:

Michael E. Rossi, 67, of Pebble Beach, has been appointed senior jobs advisor in the Office of the Governor. In this role, Rossi will be the point of contact between California’s business and workforce leaders and the Administration; he will streamline and invigorate the state’s economic development infrastructure; and he will advise Governor Brown on regulatory, legislative and executive actions needed to drive job growth.

From 2005 to 2008, Rossi served as an advisor and senior member of the operations team at Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. and as chairman and chief executive officer of Aozora Bank, taking it public in November 2006. From 2007 to 2008 he also served as chairman of GMAC Residential Capital, LLC. Rossi was retired from the private sector from 1997 to 2005. He was vice chairman and chief risk officer of BankAmerica Corporation and was the chairman of its Fiduciary and Investment Policy Committee from 1993 to 1997. Previously, he was BankAmerica's chief credit officer and held various executive positions including running BankAmerica's Commercial Banking, Global Private Bank, Asia, Latin America, Commercial Real Estate, Corporate Real Estate, Personal and Corporate Trust and Cash Management divisions. He also served as the senior credit officer of BankAmerica’s World Banking Group.

Rossi currently serves on the Advisory Board of Shorenstein Properties LLC, the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Monterey County, Special Olympics Committee of Northern California and Claremont Graduate University. He is also a senior advisor to the San Francisco 49ers.

Rossi is a former director of North Hawaii Community Hospital, BAWAG Bank (Austria), Pulte Homes, American Bankers Association, Monterey Institute of International Studies, American Graduate School of International Management, University of California at Berkeley Art Museum, Del Webb Corporation, BlueLinx Corporation, San Francisco Opera, National Urban League, Union Pacific Resources, Lifesavers, American Diabetes Association of California and United Way of Northern California. He was a member of the nominating committee of the Bankers Association for Foreign Trade and was the president of its Board. He also served on the President's Campaign Cabinet for University of California at Berkeley.

Rossi received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. This position does not require Senate confirmation and Rossi will serve with no compensation. Rossi is a Democrat.

This may be a GREAT idea or this may be another waste of Taxpayer Money.

What Do YOU Think?

Tell us about it in the comment section below

What HR People Won’t Tell You About the Job Interview

Human resource pros tell you what
to do—and what not to do—when meeting to discuss an employment opportunity.

1. “It’s amazing when people come in for an interview and say, ‘Can you tell me about your business?’ Seriously, people. There’s an Internet. Look it up.” –HR professional in New York City

2. “A lot of managers don’t want to hire people with young kids, and they use all sorts of tricks to find that out, illegally. One woman kept a picture of two really cute children on her desk even though she didn’t have children [hoping job candidates would ask about them]. Another guy used to walk people out to their car to see whether they had car seats.” –Cynthia Shapiro, former human resources executive and author of Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know

3. “Is it harder to get the job if you’re fat? Absolutely. Like George Clooney’s character said in Up in the Air, ‘I stereotype. It’s faster.’” –Suzanne Lucas, a former HR executive and the Evil HR Lady on bnet.

4. “I once had a hiring manager who refused to hire someone because the job required her to be on call one weekend a month and she had talked in the interview about how much she goes to church. Another candidate didn’t get hired because the manager was worried that the car he drove wasn’t nice enough.” –HR professional at a midsize firm in North Carolina

5. “Don’t just silence your phone for the interview. Turn it all the way off.” –Sharlyn Lauby, HR consultant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

6. “If you’ve got a weak handshake, I make a note of it.” –HR manager at a medical-equipment sales firm

7. “If you’re a candidate and the hiring manager spends 45 minutes talking about himself, the company or his Harley, let him. He’s going to come out of the interview saying you’re a great candidate.”  –Kris Dunn, chief human resources officer at Atlanta-based Kinetix, who blogs at hrcapitalist.com

8. “Make sure you’re nice to everyone, especially the admin person at the front desk. If you’re not, we’ll hear about it.” –Michael Slade, HR director at Eric Mower and Associates, a marketing communications agency

9. “We do understand that sometimes your cat really is sick, or maybe you really did have stomach problems the morning of the interview. But we probably aren’t going to believe you.”  –Rich DeMatteo, a recruiting consultant in Philadelphia

10. “Never tell us you were fired from a job. Your résumé will automatically go into the trash. In 90 percent of the cases, depending on the reference immunity laws in your state and your former company’s policy, we have no way of finding out.” –Cynthia Shapiro

11. “Know how to pronounce my name, even if you have to call and ask the receptionist before you come in.” –Senior HR executive in New York City

12. “One time I said to a candidate, ‘Tell me a little bit about yourself.’ An hour and a half later, I was afraid to ask question No. 2.” –Sharlyn Lauby

13. “How soon should you send a thank-you note? The next day seems a little desperate. Wait a week, and I’ve probably interviewed a bunch of other people and you can remind me again how great you are.” –Cynthia Shapiro

14. “When it comes to getting a job, persistence does not pay off. Checking in once or twice is fine. But if you call and call and call, you’re not going to get the job, because you’re annoying.” –HR manager at a medical-equipment sales firm

15. “Sometimes we’ll tell you we ended up hiring someone internally—even if we didn’t—just to get you off our back.” HR representative at a Fortune 500 financial-services firm

16. “If your former supervisor hated you, don’t give me his direct line for a reference. Instead, give me the number to HR. Most of us will give out only the dates of your employment and what your title was.” –HR professional at a midsize firm in North Carolina

17. “Yes, we do look at your credit as part of our background check. And if you’ve got a bankruptcy or if your credit score is below 650, you’ll have a hard time getting a job. [But] background checks are expensive. Sometimes we bluff, get you to fill out the form, and don’t even run it.” –Cynthia Shapiro

Condensed from Reader's Digest Magazine, April 2011

California labor market recovery to go more slowly than predicted

Here is a very interesting story I read in the LA Times and thought you needed to know:

UCLA economists project the state's unemployment rate won't crack single digits until early 2013.

Economists have predicted that California's labor market recovery would be slow. A new UCLA forecast projects that it could take even longer than previously thought.

The state's unemployment rate will remain in double digits until early 2013, according to a report slated for release Wednesday by UCLA's Anderson School of Management. That's three months later than the university's economists forecast in December, as California's weak housing market continues to weigh on the region's recovery.

"The improvements we were forecasting, dismal as they were, were not quite dismal enough," said Jerry Nickelsburg, a UCLA senior economist.

California's unemployment rate was 12.4% in January, a month when employers added just 12,500 jobs; 2.2 million Californians are unemployed. Rising commodity and oil prices have made employers hesitant to hire.

The California jobless rate will average 11.6% this year, 10.5% in 2012 and 9.3% in 2013, the UCLA economists predict.

Some jobs won't be back. The housing bubble wildly inflated sectors such as construction and financial services. Economists said about 350,000 of the jobs lost in those sectors during the Great Recession probably won't return this decade.

On the positive side, when California starts to gain momentum it will likely grow faster than the nation, helped by exports to Asia that will drive recovery at ports and in the technology sector. Economists predict employment in the state will increase 1.1% this year, primarily in healthcare, professional and business services, exports and technology-related manufacturing sectors.

California will add 152,000 jobs this year, 435,000 in 2012 and 535,000 in 2013, the UCLA economists projected.

Still, California's sluggish growth worries economists, who said the state may be losing out to places such as Texas that have less stringent environmental and other regulations. Although venture capitalists are still investing in California, analysts said, the state needs to remove obstacles to job growth. Most of all, the state needs to focus on its strengths, said Nickelsburg, the UCLA economist.

"Policies which chase after smokestack manufacturing are likely to be relatively ineffective," he said. "Whereas policies which enhance the business climate for those sectors which California has a comparative advantage in — innovation, technology, entrepreneurship and trade — are likely to be the most efficient."

Some of the sectors leading the national recovery, including automobile manufacturing, aren't big employers in California — another reason the Golden State recovery is lagging behind that of the nation.

"California is coming from a deeper hole," UCLA economist David Shulman said.

Shulman projects the U.S. economy will expand at a 3.8% annual rate this quarter and an average 3% rate per quarter until at least 2013. While employment won't return to peak levels, the economy will add a projected 1.9 million jobs in 2011, 2.6 million in 2012 and 3 million in 2013.

The U.S. economy has started to look more robust, as employers added 192,000 jobs in February, up from 63,000 the month before. The national unemployment rate dropped to 8.9% in February, down from 9% in January. UCLA economists predict the national jobless rate will average 8.9% in 2012, dropping to 8.1% by 2013.

Budget deficits in state and local governments nationwide will continue to dog the labor market as the public sector probably will continue to shed jobs, economists said. Rising commodity prices could force businesses to raise prices and stall hiring. Upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa could continue to put upward pressure on oil prices.

"If we have a bigger crisis and oil goes much higher, it's going to cause some problems," Shulman said. "We're not going to be optimistic then."

By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times
alana.semuels@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times